My adventures in bladesmithing and luthiery, and other stuff. Prepare to be amazed. (Yawn).

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More Less Paul uke pics.

Well, I’m almost done with the Les Paul uke (hereafter called Less Paul).

Making the neck. First the pieces for the neck shaft and headstock are cut at a 17 degree angle on the bandsaw:

Then the two pieces are clamped to the workbench and flattened with a plane:

Then glued together:

Another thickness of mahogany is glued to the other end and will become the heel and tenon:

Now the body had to be sanded smooth. First I remove the gouge marks with 60 grit paper on the ROS (random orbital sander).

Then the top is sprayed with black primer:

Then the paint is sanded off with 120 grit. The paint is used because it helps you see the low spots, as well as deep scratches from the previous grit, like so:

Once that’s done, it’s time to cut the F-hole. Fun fun.

First, as much material as possible is removed with drill bits.

Then I used a variety of chisels, gouges, and files to remove the rest:

Now the recess for the control cavity cover is routed, again using a template:

and the cover itself is made:

I didn’t get many pictures of making the neck, so here it is mostly done:

Here it’s glued to the body:

Now on to the pore filling

The pore filler I used is a type of epoxy. The way it works is you spread the stuff over the surface, let it set up, then sand it level. At least, that’s how I did it this time. Next time I’ll alter my strategy some…

I didn’t get many intermediate pictures of the burst spraying so here’s what I did. First I sprayed a coat of lacquer tinted lemon yellow. Then around the edge I sprayed a coat of black. Then I used tabacco brown to blend the other two together. Here it is after spraying the brown:

Then I sprayed a thick coat of clear to melt it all together:

Not bad for a first attempt, eh? I was hoping for more grain visible in the middle, so next time I’ll use my airbrush instead of my big spray gun…

I did all that yesterday. This morning I shot a couple coats of brown on the back, sides, heel, and headstock, leaving some of the neck clear:

Next I’ll spray about 15 coats of clear over the whole thing, then let the finish cure for a week or so.